This week in Memphis history: November 1-7

Saturday, November 02, 2013, Vol. 6, No. 45

2012: On the front page of The Daily News, Memphis-based International Paper Co. confirmed it was exploring its options in expanding its Memphis headquarters, including looking at relocating in other cities. The company’s leaders later decided to expand the Memphis footprint in the Poplar Corridor with another building in the complex near Poplar Avenue and Massey Road.

1943:The Peabody Hotel Co. announced it had finished paying off its $800,000 second mortgage notes, a mortgage made in 1925 when the hotel was built on the south side of Union Avenue between Second and Third Streets. The owners of the Hotel DeVoy, meanwhile, announced they had sold the hotel on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Front Streets to Arthur F. Landstreet and Associates for $350,000 on $700,000 in outstanding bonds. The building was originally the Elks Club and Hotel. Its name was later changed to Hotel King Cotton. It was demolished in the mid 1980s. The Morgan Keegan Tower was built on the site.

1923: The week before city elections were busy with incumbent Memphis Mayor Rowlett Paine taking a front-page ad in The Daily News featuring a picture of him and the slogan “Keep Him On The Job.” Meanwhile, the Ku Klux Klan was running what it billed as “The Independent Ticket” headed by mayoral challenger W. Joe Wood that included future Congressman Clifford Davis as the Klan candidate for City Judge. Davis had been Paine’s secretary.